A post on SemiAccurate breaks down some information from PC Watch (translation) suggesting that Intel's upcoming Broadwell CPUs will be soldered to the motherboard, rather than socketed, a detail they have now confirmed with a pair of OEMs. They offer the distressed opinion that this will be a death knell to the desktop PC and the enthusiast market, and though they add that they've received information indicating there's a "good chance" that the Sky Lake processors that will follow Broadwell will be socketed for one or two generations to follow, they conclude: "By then the last remaining overclockers and experimenters on the PC front will be gone, and for good technical reasons." Thanks Ant via Slashdot.

yup, simplifying manufacturing if anything *should* bring costs down, not the other way around.

people are just addicted to the freedom of choice and feel like the right solution to any given problem is more choice = better results.

this simply isn't always true. there's over 400 kinds of toothpaste sold in america, now how do you know which is the best one for you? you'll always have buyers remorse. more choice actually results in less happiness.

i hate consoles, but PCs could learn something from them, they do their job incredibly efficiently, where it seems that PCs are the model of inefficiency. this move could actually help get better performance for us hardcore PC enthusiasts and gamers. isn't this better than having 400 kinds of toothpaste to choose from?